July Adventures

Today was my first day of classes at the "Uni" as the Aussies call it here. For this semester, I am attending the University of Newcastle in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. I had already pre-registered for classes before I arrived in Australia, and I chose classes that will transfer back over to my college in the States. Since I am now a junior in college (what the heck), all of the classes I take from here on will either go towards my Psychology major or my English (Writing) minor.

Here at the Uni, I'm currently enrolled in three courses. Each class in Australia is worth 4 US credits through my university at home, so I'm technically only taking 12 credits this semester. I usually take 16-18 credits every semester, but taking 4 short is fine for me because I'm already ahead with my course load. But if you are going abroad, and are not sure about your progress towards graduating on time; talk to your advisor and figure it out ASAP or it can get super stressful. I could have taken a full 16-credit load, but I figured I'd give myself a break while in Australia. I'm taking Biological Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology, and Indigenous Australian Literature. The two Psych classes go towards my required Psych electives back at High Point, and the Australian Lit fulfills my second lit requirement for my Writing minor. We also were required to take a class that was based on Australian culture, so this lit class double dipped for both of those requirements.

In Australia, classes only meet once a week. Which is incredible. Since they meet once a week and can have anywhere from 50-350+ students in one class, they have these separate classes called "tutorials," where the big lecture class is divided up into smaller sections that meet on a different day for discussions and group work. Since my classes are Psychology courses; instead of tutorials, we have lab sessions. On Mondays, I have my two Psych labs, 2 hours each, from 9-11am and then 1-3pm. Labs aren't every week either, so some weeks I will have off Mondays, which will be really nice. I have off Tuesdays & Thursdays also, which I looooooove. Wednesdays I have my two Psych lectures from 1-3, and then 3-5; which is what I had today. Fridays, I have my English course in the morning and that's it. Not too shabby.

As I'm writing this, it's Wednesday night & I just had my first day of classes. I was super nervous about it because there are 150 people in each of my lectures and I'm used to having 8-30 people in a lecture. I was excited, but also super anxious. We have to take the public bus to the Uni (which I'm still getting used to), and it's a 35 minute ride on a good day. We also have to walk 15 minutes to the bus stop and then walk to our classes from where the bus drops us off at the Uni. So we basically leave our house an hour and a half to two hours before our class actually starts.

Today, I had no idea what to expect. I was prepared for a long day ahead of me, so I dressed semi-nicely, and ate a big breakfast; avocado & egg on an english muffin, an apple, yogurt & some tea. I packed some healthy snacks in my bag and headed to the bus stop with Jonah. The bus ride was not long at all. Both of my classes were super interesting and it was also a lot easier for me to pay attention in a bigger classroom environment for some reason. Maybe it was because my professors have an Aussie accent?? I'm not sure. Everyone was super nice and the campus is beautiful. I'm super excited for the rest of the semester and my time here at the University of Newcastle.